Page 13 of Through The Woods

Chapter Four

“Miss? Can you hear me?”

I groaned and kept my eyes squeezed shut. My alarm hadn’t even gone off yet. Surely it was too early for class to start.

“Miss, you need to open your eyes.”

Events came rushing back to me and my eyes flew open in shock.

Clint. The woods. The men I’d heard while lying on the forest floor.

It had all been real.

I recognized the man’s voice. It was Doc. I was slightly disappointed to see that he wasn’t three feet tall with a long white beard and kindly face. He’d sounded older, but couldn’t have been a day over thirty. His light brown hair looked as if it’d been windswept into the perfect position—something that no doubt had taken the right hair products along with a lot of time and patience. Dark scruff covered his face, making it hard to determine his exact age. I would’ve guessed his height as close to six feet, with muscles in all the right places. If his body was any indicator, he was no stranger to hard work.

Like a young Clint Eastwood.

Clint.

Ugh.

I couldn’t think about him.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “W-where am I?” My voice was nothing more than a raspy whisper. I knew it was a side effect of being choked, but briefly considered the possibility that it could be permanent, sending a jolt of fear through me.

The man gave me a sympathetic smile. “You’re safe now. Let’s leave the rest for later. Want to tell me—”

“What? You’re shitting me, right?!” A loud voice roared from the hallway and I shrank back as the door was thrown open.

“What the fuck is going on here, Doc?” The man was gorgeous; his dark hair fell right below his jawline, slightly curling at the ends. If Joe Manganiello and Jason Momoa had a love child, this man was definitely it. He was tall, but muscular—like he spent hours in the gym and his eyes—they were such a dark shade of brown that it was almost impossible to see his pupils.

Those same eyes narrowed when he looked at me as if I were something he’d found stuck to the bottom of his boot.

The man he and I referred to as Doc stepped in. “Charm, we found her out in the woods, all alone. She was unconscious…she’d been stabbed—”

Charm held a hand up. “Enough.” Then he turned those dark eyes on me again. “What’s your name?”

I tried to swallow, but my throat was completely dry. “It’s N-Neve.” I’d wanted to sound brave, but that went out the window the minute my voice cracked.

Charm, whose personality was in direct opposition to his name, crossed his arms over his chest. “Neve. How the hell did you end up in these woods?”

I was still lying down, looking up at him. It was a submissive position, so I propped myself up on my elbows, ignoring the stab of pain in my side and arm. “Pass.”

“Oh, fuck no!” He exploded with anger, just like he’d done out in the hall. “You do not get to waltz into my fucking clubhouse and demand a pass when I ask you a direct question!” With each word, he moved lower and lower until he was shouting directly into my face, his spittle hitting my cheeks.

Doc stepped in and wrapped an arm around Charm’s shoulders. “Okay, let’s have you stand over here for a bit, yeah?”

Thinking about the events that led to me being here only made me feel like crying, and I refused to shed a tear in front of these strangers.

“You a cop?” Charm bit out from across the room, scowling at me as if I’d been caught trying to torch the place.

I laughed at the absurdity of it, pushing myself right into another coughing fit. With streaming eyes, I managed to rasp out, “Not even close. I’m a nobody. Can I leave now?”

His eyes narrowed and he looked ready to agree when another man entered the room. His wavy blond hair was unruly, covering one eye in its quest to escape his head, but the big grin on his face commanded all of my attention. His beard would’ve covered it up had he not styled the ends of his mustache to curl upward. He was one pirate hat and some eyeliner away from joining Captain Jack Sparrow and his merry buccaneers. “Hey Beautiful. Have a nice nap?”

It was Happy.

The more I stared at him, the more I realized he was built like a pirate as well—tall and lanky.

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